Marco Rubio on Drugs

1987: Brother-in-law imprisoned for drug conviction

I had finally settled into life in Miami, and was happy we had moved back. But in October, our family's fortunes took a sudden turn for the worse. I came home from school one day and knew from the look on my mother's face that something terrible had
happened. It was a look you expect to see when someone has been told they or someone they love is dying. And that's exactly how I felt when she told me that earlier that morning Orlando had been arrested on drug charges.

I was stunned by the news. Like my parents, I had never suspected Orlando was involved in a criminal enterprise. His arrest and subsequent trial and imprisonment distressed the entire family, but
[my sister] Barbara and my parents bore the brunt of the hardships it caused. Even decades later, my sister and mother would be forced to relive the shame of the ordeal.

1986 brother-in-law's drug bust unexamined until 2011

The Rubio family suffered a painful blow. On Dec. 16 police swept across Miami making arrests. The front page of the Miami Herald told the story of the bust of a major drug ring.

The alleged leaders were a father-son team, Mario and Guillermo Tabraue.
Deep in the stories about the big bust almost as if it were an afterthought, was a list of 4 men who had been arrested. One of these men was Orlando Cicilia. He was married to Marco's older sister, Barbara. The indictment paints Cicilia as a kind of a
middle-man, making a huge number of trips in 1985 & 1986 to deliver cocaine.

The drug bust would remain an unexamined episode in the Rubio family's story until a news report by the Univision network aired in 2011. The senator, who speaks so frequently
about his family, had not mentioned it publicly, nor had his political rivals publicly used it against him. Marco was only 16 at the time of the arrest, and there has never been an accusation that he was involved in his brother-in-law's criminal activity

Brother-in-law's trial prosecuted by House member's spouse

Marco's brother-in-law Orlando Cicilia went on trial in 1988. He was a minor defendant in a major case. The allegations in the trial were explosive enough that they led to the demotion of a high-ranking Miami police official after testimony alleging he
cooperated with bribe-paying smugglers.

The prosecution stepped down in June 1988 and was replaced by Dexter Lehtinen, who was married to the Havana-born Republican politician Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Dexter was a Democrat when they met, but switched to
the Republican Party shortly before they married. Ros-Lehtinen would win an election the next year, becoming the 1st Hispanic woman elected to Congress. Later, she became the most senior Republican women in the US House of Representatives.

Cicilia
received the 2nd longest sentence--35 years. It appears his sentence was later reduced to 20 or 25 years. The government seized his house after saying it could not find $15 million that he'd earned in the drug trade.

Teach students skills to avoid gangs, violence, & drugs

Problem: Florida is witnessing growing rates of gang participation and gang-related violence. Local law enforcement agencies have identified over 760 gangs in a statewide database managed by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Hate groups have also proliferated. The Southern Poverty Law Center found fifty hate groups active in Florida, second only to California.

The tragedy of Sept. 11 has revealed that gangs are also a threat to our domestic security.
The deep infiltration of gangs in our society is extremely attractive to terrorist organizations.

Florida should increase funding for additional law enforcement resources to combat gang activities.
Florida should pattern its gang elimination program after the successful Gang Resistance Education And Training (GREAT) program. GREAT is a curriculum-based program aimed at teaching students skills to help them avoid gangs, violence, and drugs.